’Personal differences’ stand in the way of progress at Argyll and Bute Council, a report by Audit Scotland has said.
The authority’s plans to cut £18m over the next two years – currently out to public consultation which closes in ten days’ time – have also been criticized by the national auditors.
And the council has been urged to consider more business in public – secret discussions of the £7m Helensburgh CHORD project were highlighted here, with even a ‘highlights’ report being deemed confidential.
Property transactions in particular have been highlighted: currently the council says it has agreed offers for three town centre buildings in Helensburgh and a shop unit in Rosneath but is not releasing the details; in Kilcreggan, the village’s former school is still standing empty, more than three years after negotiations with a buyer were said to be ‘ongoing’.
Audit Scotland acknowledges that some information must be confidential for legal reasons, but adds that only three councils in Scotland consider a higher percentage of reports in private: “Most other councils consider more of this information in public than Argyll and Bute does.
“Some provide details of bidders for properties or contracts and others provide the amounts offered and the reasons for accepting or rejecting bids.
“Where it does need to consider issues in private, it can report much more information about issues debated and the outcomes to the public
“This could include details of to whom something was sold, the selling price or to whom a contract was awarded. By operating more openly it will help build greater trust with its communities.”
Council leader Dick Walsh has issued a lengthy response to three of the four questions posed by this website after the Audit Scotland report; it is available as a PDF here: Council responses
The auditors – who were highly critical of the council after a turbulent period before Cllr Walsh took over following the collapse of SNP-led administrations in 2013 – do say that the council has ‘continued to make progress’ and the council is ‘significantly different’ from when a highly critical report was compiled in 2013.
But the latest report adds: “Long-standing political and personal differences remain amongst a small number of key individuals in Argyll and Bute.
“These differences are played out in a very public way and are damaging the council’s image and reputation, with implications for relations with local communities.”
Perhaps the most serious criticism though is made of the council’s ‘Service Choices’ programme, which looks likely to see more than 300 jobs lost and front-line services cut back or axed altogether.
The public is being consulted on the proposals, but the Audit Scotland report says in effect that the consultation is pointless: “It is not clear how most of the Service Choices options will help to deliver the council’s strategic aims and priorities.
“The majority of the proposed savings options put to public consultation are based on low-level cuts to individual service budgets.
“Given the nature of many of the proposals, it is difficult to see how the public would be able to offer an informed opinion on them.”
The full Audit Scotland report is available here: Argyll and Bute Council – ac2015119b_argyllbutebv.pdf
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